


Waking Andromeda

by wilddragonflying



Category: Mass Effect - All Media Types, Mass Effect: Andromeda
Genre: (you know the scenes), Canon Compliant, Canon-Typical Violence, Canonical Character Death, Exploration, F/M, Lots of it, Other Additional Tags to Be Added, Rated E for later chapters, Sarcasm, Slow Burn, follows the ME:A storyline with a few tweaks to fit my character
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-03-19
Updated: 2020-03-19
Packaged: 2021-03-01 02:40:10
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,630
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23207887
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/wilddragonflying/pseuds/wilddragonflying
Summary: Kara Ryder never particularly wanted to be the Pathfinder - hell, she never really even wanted to see Alec Ryder ever again. But when the very first mission goes tits up, her plans go out the window and suddenly, she's responsible for a whole fucking lot of people.Here's hoping she can manage to keep too many of them from killing each other or the new neighbors they accidentally invaded.
Relationships: Jaal Ama Darav/Female Ryder | Sara
Comments: 2
Kudos: 16





	Waking Andromeda

**Author's Note:**

> So, thanks to the 2020 Coronavirus shutting down my campus/most other social things, I've finally got time to replay Andromeda and write this! We'll see how long it gets, but I'm planning on working my way through the entire game, adding in some scenes and tweaking others to fit Kara better, and focusing on the development of the Tempest family and her relationship with Jaal.

“Are you sure about this, Ryder?” Kallo asks, frowning as he scans the screen in front of him. “Those coordinates are… a bit too close to the Scourge for comfort.”

“I’m sure,” Kara says firmly. “We managed to activate Eos’s vault, but we’re still fumbling in the dark, here. We need more information, and that’s the only lead we have right now.”

Kallo still looks troubled, but he puts in the coordinates anyway. Kara takes a deep breath, hands flexing against the console in front of her, and turns her attention to the window, watching as the _Tempest_ pulls away from the Nexus. Coming to Andromeda was a big enough leap, but everything that’s happened - Alec’s death, the news about the Nexus, Eos and its vault - it’s starting to wear on her. Hopefully, this new vault will - 

“We’re on a collision course with unknown objects!”

Kara’s answering before she’s consciously thought about it. “Make corrections. SAM, you on this?”

“ _Collision is imminent._ ”

“All stop, now!” Kara orders, bracing herself against the console as the _Tempest_ drops out of FTL quicker than is strictly safe. She sucks in a sharp breath, takes an instinctive step back as the single largest kett ship she’s ever seen appears in front of them. Kallo and Suvi both make shocked noises, and Kara can practically feel SAM’s processors running in her implant as she scans the ship, eyes darting to the sides and taking in the smaller ships quickly flanking them.

“Kett ships,” Suvi breathes. “A dozen - no, more.”

“They’ve got us pinned against the Scourge,” Kallo realizes.

“ _They are scanning us, Pathfinder._ ”

“Well, scan them back!” Kara snaps, still looking around, taking in everything she can, mind racing - 

The lights on the bridge dim, quickly replaced by an orange glow from the vidcon, and Kara whirls, a snarl already curling her lip at the sight of a kett - some high-ranking asshole official, no doubt - taking up the entirety of the screen in front of her. “Where is the one who used the Remnant?” it demands, and Kara bares her teeth, ignores the sound of her crew coming up behind her. “Their DNA signature is there. Answer me.”

“You’re the one in my way,” she growls. “Who are you?”

“They’ve locked navigation,” Suvi reports, distressed.

Kallo’s fingers fly fruitlessly across the keys in front of him. “We’re being steered into their ship!”

Attention snapping back to the kett in front of her, Kara steps forward. “Tell me what you want,” she demands.

“I won’t explain what you can’t understand,” it says, dismissive, and _oh,_ it takes everything Kara has to keep her mouth shut at that.

 _Ryder._ SAM’s voice comes into her mind, their private channel humming against the nape of Kara’s neck, and she forces her expression to keep from twitching. _I have almost regained control of the ship. I need a few more seconds._

Well, Kara can buy a few seconds. Eyes narrowing, she snaps, “You can’t take a ship full of people just because you fucking feel like it! Who the _hell_ do you think you are?”

“Enough,” the kett snorts. “Your defiance is naive and reckless.” Its gaze roams over Kara, its expression dispassionate, and she suppresses the shiver that wants to travel down her spine. _It’s like it’s looking at a sample under a microscope._ “This day marks the beginning of your greatness,” it says, meeting Kara’s gaze once more - and then the video cuts out.

The lights on the bridge come back on, and Kara steps up to the console. “SAM?”

“ _I_ _have plotted a potential course through the Scourge._ ”

“Do it,” Kara orders. “Everyone, brace yourselves.”

Fast as a whip, the _Tempest_ whirls, speeding directly towards the Scourge. Kallo’s hands move too fast for Kara to track, and she winces when there’s an unholy electric screech from the Scourge scraping against the _Tempest_ ’s hull. In the cameras, the pursuing kett ships fall one by and one, and Kara’s grip is white-knuckled as they approach the narrowest opening yet - 

And burst through to the other side, relatively unscathed.

A cheer goes up, and Suvi immediately starts rattling off the damage to the _Tempest_ as Drack chuckles. “Nice work, kid,” he says, clapping a hand to Kallo’s seat hard enough to make the salarian jump.

“Yeah,” Kara sighs, giving Kallo an approving smile as she turns to the rest of the crew. “But who the _hell_ was that guy?”

No one answers before Gil’s voice crackles from the comms. “ _Ryder! We’ve got trouble down here. You need to find us a port_ now.”

“On it,” Kara says. “Suvi, where’d we end up?”

“In the Onaon system, close to the coordinates. We can set down there.”

Kara nods. “Gil, give it what you can, we’ll be setting down shortly.”

She ignores the chatter from behind her as they enter the atmosphere, already focusing on scanning the planet below for some sign of the monoliths. She jumps when Suvi announces, “We’re being hailed.”

A quick look around shows more alien ships surrounding them, but they aren’t kett design, so Kara sighs. “Patch them through.” She waits until the strange language has finished coming across the comm before she says, “Look, I know this looks bad, but I swear we’re the galactic good guys. Our ship was damaged and we need to set down so we can repair it.”

There’s another burst of alien language, followed by what’s clearly laughter. “They’re forcing us to land,” Kallo says, looking to Kara, who takes a deep breath.

“Then we land,” she says. “Not like we’ve got a choice.”

The alien ships guide them over barren canyons, until there’s green on the horizon, quickly spreading and inciting excited chatter from Kara’s crew. “Look at that,” Cora breathes. “It’s beautiful.”

They land shortly after a city comes into view, and Kara straightens with a groan. “Alright, first contact is on me. Everyone else, stay here until you get the all-clear. I don’t think they’re hostile, so long as I go unarmed.”

“Ryder, are you sure?” Vetra asks, concern clear in her voice, and Kara stops before the door, turning to give her crew a grin.

“I’m sure. Just, if I get eaten - even if it’s hilarious - please destroy the vids, okay?”

* * *

There’s a crew of aliens waiting for her, guns pointed directly at her as Kara descends the ramp of the _Tempest,_ hands up and open to show that she’s unarmed. They chatter briefly around her, and then one of them prods her in the shoulder, directing her towards the bridge that leads towards what looks like a large port attached to a larger city. Kara walks with an even gate, not daring to turn her head as she takes in as much of her surroundings as possible. 

At the other end of the bridge, there’s a delegation of more of the aliens waiting for her, including one who steps forward and speaks in clear English. “I am Paaran Shie, governor of Aya. We are the angara.”

Kara takes a careful step forward, and then another when her angaran guard let her. “Hello,” she says, inclining her head. “My name is Kara Ryder. I’m a Pathfinder with the Andromeda Initiative, from the Milky Way galaxy.”

Shie studies her carefully, eyes narrowed. “Yes, your species crossed darkspace. We’ve heard of your journey.” She opens her mouth to say something else, only to be interrupted by another angara - _Likely male,_ Kara thinks, taking note of the larger neck folds and broader shoulders. “Jaal,” she says, her tone sharp. “I have this in hand.”

“Evfra saw the ship come in and sent me to find out what’s going on,” the newcomer - Jaal - says, and Kara feels her shoulders straighten. His tone of voice is commanding, brooking no nonsense, and Kara knows that Shie may be the governor of Aya, but this _Evfra_ is in charge, and Jaal is likely his second. Jaal turns from Shie to Kara, striding down the steps, and Kara watches him approach, careful to keep her posture loose, nonthreatening.

“She’s a human from the Milky Way, a Pathfinder,” Shie says as Jaal draws near, but Kara pays her no mind, her gaze locked on Jaal’s. He’s taller than her, broader, and the way he carries himself belies his experience. He’s a predator, but so is Kara, and it’s difficult for her to keep herself calm after everything that’s happened the past week. She has to remind herself that she’s on _his_ ‘territory’ - she won’t be cowed, but she _cannot_ be aggressive.

Jaal steps right into Kara’s space, and she lets him, stands her ground even as she feels his armor brush against the front of her jacket. “Aya is hidden, protected. What do you want?” he asks, his voice practically a growl.

Kara lifts her chin. “We didn’t know what we’d find here,” she says, opting for the truth - there’s been enough lies. “But I’m open to sharing what we know if you are.”

Jaal snorts. “Honesty would be a good start,” he says, gaze roving over Kara’s expression for a long moment before he steps back, turns, and climbs the stairs, speaking to Shie as he passes. “I’ll inform Evfra; he’ll be waiting for you in his office at the Resistance Headquarters. I’ll meet you there.”

Shie’s expression is a universal one - long-suffering - as she turns back to Kara. “I will accompany you through our city,” she announces. “Your crew will stay on your ship. Follow me.”

* * *

The walk through Aya takes Kara’s breath away. The city itself is gorgeous, and Kara lets Shie know, taking note of the genuinely pleased note in the governor’s voice. She studies the angara they pass just as the angara study her, and takes note of everything she sees, the back of her neck prickling with the speed with which SAM is processing and cataloguing everything they see. Eventually, they reach the Resistance Headquarters, and Shie motions for Kara to step through the doors. 

The building is bustling, but Kara’s attention is immediately caught by Jaal, walking past with another angara. Younger, if Kara had to hazard a guess based on the angara’s posture and behavior; he’s deferential to Jaal, lending weight to Kara’s theory that Jaal was high up in this… Resistance, seemingly the angara’s equivalent to a military. The recruit that Jaal is speaking to leaves, handing what looks like a modified kett rifle to Jaal as he goes. Kara ignores the wide-eyed look the young angara gives her in favor of approaching Jaal, who watches her with a critical eye, easily holding the rifle with one hand.

“Our experience with the kett makes us… naturally distrustful of all aliens,” he says as Kara draws near.

Kara inclines her head. “We’ve had our own run-ins with the kett,” she says easily, openly.

Jaal seems surprised by this, the ridges above his eyes lifting. “Then… you really _do_ understand,” he says slowly. “When the Archon came to Heleus, he demolished our sovereign state - took what he wanted, as if _we_ were nothing. Now the kett merciless abduct angara. Often, we never see our people again.” And then, like a switch flipping, his tone changes from intense, a borderline snarl, to something almost forcefully cordial. “Come, this way. Evfra is waiting.”

One eyebrow raised, Kara gestures for Jaal to lead the way, and follows him through a door to a large meeting room. “The kett steal your people?”

“And the Resistance fights them every day, with everything we can,” Jaal confirms. 

Kara’s mind is racing. “Is it attrition?” she wonders aloud, mostly to herself. “What are they after?”

Jaal snorts. “You should save your questions for Evfra,” he says, approaching a table behind which an angara is pacing, speaking angrily into a comm. He waits until Evfra has disconnected the call before he speaks. “Evfra, this is one of the aliens from the… _Milky Way_. She is a Pathfinder.”

“‘Pathfinder,’” Evfra echoes, looking at Kara mistrustfully. “It’s an aggressive move, coming to Aya.”

“It wasn’t meant that way,” Kara says honestly. “We had no idea this cluster was inhabited; our scans six hundred years ago said that there were habitable worlds, but no signs of sentient life. When we arrived, we thought only the kett were here, searching for relics of a civilization that had come and gone while we crossed darkspace, and we followed coordinates here, to a fully-functioning vault. I have an ark full of desperate people counting on me to find them a home, and these vaults are my best bet.”

Evfra listens with a thoughtful expression. “I feel for you and your people,” he says, and he even sounds like he means it. “How do you know about the vaults?”

“On a planet we call Eos, I explored three monoliths, activated them, and activated the vault that they revealed,” Kara explains. “The vault gave us a map, and we extrapolated the coordinates to another vault - Aya’s vault. Eos’s vault stabilized the environment, and we hoped to find out more about how it worked from this vault, maybe even information about others.”

“Remnant,” Jaal realizes, stepping forward and turning towards Evfra. “Recent intelligence supports her claim.”

“Respectfully, I need to see the inside of Aya’s vault, see what makes it different from Eos’s, from the others we saw on the map,” Kara interjects.

Evfra turns away, towards the window, arms crossing over his chest as he sighs. “You are right; Aya’s vault is different,” he says. “But it was closed years ago, and the entrance is hidden. We can’t help you.”

Kara bites back a curse, but Jaal steps in before she can say anything else. “The Moshae could,” he proposes. “She is our most revered scientist and elder - she knows the vault.”

“But now the kett have her,” Evfra spits, “and our rescue attempts have failed. She is lost to us, and to you.” He glances at Kara with this last, and she straightens, squares her shoulders.

“There must be another way - how can I convince you? Can I offer help?”

“Arrogant,” Evfra snarls. “I don’t know you, let alone _trust_ you. Why would I want your help?”

“Of course,” Kara murmurs, stepping back and mentally kicking herself for the misstep; politics and diplomacy was never her strong suit.

Jaal, however, steps forward, between Evfra and Kara. “I feel - Evfra, what this alien says is _extraordinary,_ ” he breathes. “The Moshae would want us to be brave, and not let this chance pass.”

“Jaal,” Evfra sighs. “You talk too much.”

Jaal is undeterred, finally holstering his rifle as he suggests, “Let me assess this alien. I will be your eyes - I know you can spare me.”

The way that Evfra shakes his head is familiar, so reminiscent of the way that Kara’s mom had shaken her own head at her and Scott’s antics when they were teens. “Go if you want,” he relents. “But when she tries to kill you, be prepared to strike first.”

Kara can’t help her amused snort at Evfra’s pessimism as he leaves, and Jaal’s own expression is amused before it turns serious. “I am Jaal Ama Darav. I’ll be your envoy through Angaran space.”

Kara smiles. “It’s going to be cozy, so I hope you like people,” she warns, holding her hand out - and then adjusting, curling her hand into a fist and offering her forearm instead when SAM flashes an image of two angara greeting each other as they’d walked to the Resistance headquarters.

Jaal looks pleasantly surprised, his own hand fisted as he taps his forearm against hers. “I hope I don’t regret this,” he says, but his tone is amused, maybe even a little eager, and Kara’s smile widens into a grin.

“Me, either. Welcome aboard, Jaal.”


End file.
